ITIL® Practitioner Certification

The ITIL® Practitioner level offers organizations and individuals additional practical guidance on how to adopt and adapt the ITIL framework to support their business' objectives.

It is the next step after ITIL Foundation for professionals who have already learned the basics of IT Service Management (ITSM) and the business value of well-designed and delivered services. Where ITIL Foundation focuses on the 'what' and the 'why', ITIL Practitioner shows 'how' to start adopting and adapting the ITIL framework within day-to-day situations and responsibilities, giving individuals more confidence in their ability to structure and contribute to ITSM initiatives.

ITIL Practitioner does not replace any of the existing ITIL qualifications.

The first ITIL Practitioner examinations will be available in March 2016.

ITIL® Practitioner from Richard Webber on Vimeo.

Key points about ITIL Practitioner

ITIL Practitioner covers the Continual Service Improvement (CSI) approach as the way to structure any improvement initiatives.
ITIL Practitioner also covers three key areas crucial for success of any improvement initiatives:

• Organizational Change Management
• Communication
• Measurement and Metrics.

The ITIL Practitioner guidance follows 9 Guiding Principles:

• Focus on value
• Design for experience
• Start where you are
• Work holistically
• Progress iteratively
• Observe directly
• Be transparent
• Collaborate
• Keep it simple

About the ITIL Practitioner Qualification

ITIL Practitioner is complementary to and fits in with the current ITIL qualification scheme.

• To take the ITIL Practitioner exam, individuals must hold an existing ITIL Foundation certificate.
• ITIL Practitioner is not a prerequisite for the ITIL Intermediate Level qualifications.
• ITIL Practitioner is worth three credits towards the ITIL Expert qualification.
• ITIL Practitioner is also worth 15 points towards the AXELOS' Professional Development Programme ITIL digital badge.
• The examination is open book, lasts 1hr 45 minutes and made up of 40 multiple choice questions based on a scenario.

Audience: Who is the course for?

• IT Managers and Staff
• Project Managers
• User Managers
• Other team members involved in IT Service Management
• Those wishing to achieve the ITIL Foundation certification

Course duration:

Three days (the ITIL 2011 Foundation exam is normally taken during the afternoon of the third day).  Courses typically start at 9:30am on day 1, 9:00am on remaining days and finish at 5pm, however full joining instructions with confirmation of timings will be sent to each delegate prior to the course.

Homework:

You will be given homework during the course in the form of Sample Papers to complete and you may also wish to do additional reading in the evenings as prepartion for the next day. Approximatley 45 minutes of study per evening is suggested.

Benefits to the individual:

• Recognised professional qualification
• Understand ITIL and how it can be used to enhance individual effectiveness in the workplace
• Confidence and knowledge to contribute to an on-going service improvement programme
• Helps individuals to improve the quality of IT service management within organisations
• Pre-requisite for higher levels of ITIL study

Benefits to the business:

• The adoption of proven best practice processes results in improved IT services and increased productivity throughout the business
• Improved customer satisfaction and less down time through quicker fixes
• Better process management leads to increased efficiency and reduced costs
• The framework is flexible, scalable, and systematic and can be used within different organisations irrespective of size or industry

Pre-requisites:

There are no pre-requisites although a general level of IT literacy and experience in IT and/or liaising between IT and the business is expected.

Course outline:

The objectives of the ITIL 2011 Foundation course are:

• To gain an appreciation of the importance of Service Management to IT and the business
• To understand how ITIL can be used to enhance the quality of IT service management within an organisation
• To enable comprehension and awareness of key areas of the 5 ITIL core books (Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement)

Over the three day course, the following topics are covered:

An Introduction to IT Service Management

• What is "Service Management"
• Understanding customer requirements

Service Lifecycle

• The objectives and business value of each phase in the lifecycle

Service Strategy

• Purpose, objectives and scope of Service Strategy
• Value to the business
• Value creation through services
• Purpose, objectives and scope for Service Portfolio Management, Financial Management and Business Relationship Management

Service Design

• Purpose, Objectives and Scope
• Value to the business
• People, Processes, Products and Partners
• The five major aspects of Service Design (designing Service Solutions, Service management system and tools, Management and technology architectures, Processes, Measurement systems, methods and metrics)
• Service Design Processes (including Service Level Management, Availability Management, Capacity Management, IT Service Continuity Management))

Service Transition

• Purpose, objectives and scope
• Value to the business
• Service Transition Processes (Transition Planning & Support, Change Management, Knowledge Management, Service Asset & Configuration Management and Release & Deployment Management)

Service Operation

• Purpose, Objectives and Scope of Service Operation
• Value to the business
• Service Operation Processes (Incident Management, Problem Management, Event Management, Request Fulfilment and Access Management)
• Service Desk function (role, objectives and organisational structures)
• Roles and objectives of Technical Management, Application Management, IT Operations Management (IT Operations Control and Facilities Management)

Continual Service Improvement

• Main purpose, objectives and scope of CSI
• Value to the Business
• The CSI approach
• The Deming Cycle
• The 7-step Improvement Model
• The role of measurement (baselines and types of metrics)
• CSFs and KPIs

Technology and Architecture

• Review of the generic requirements for an integrated set of Service Management Technology

Mock exam and review of topics

Exam details:

A one hour exam is taken on day three of the course. 

It is necessary to pass this exam in order to proceed to the higher levels of ITIL. The exam consists of 40 multiple choice questions and the pass mark is 65%. This is a closed book exam i.e. entrants may not refer to any course materials or their own notes. Delegates who pass the exam will be awarded the Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management.